In a nod to its four West Coast newcomers, the Big Ten will hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Las Vegas one time each in the next four years, the league office announced Wednesday.

The news comes eight days after Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti announced that Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium will remain as host of the Big Ten football championship game through 2028.

Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena will host the 2027 women’s and the 2028 men’s basketball tournament. The Pac-12, the former home of new Big Ten members USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, staged its men’s basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena from 2017 to 2024; its women’s tournament had been held at other Las Vegas venues since 2019.

Other men’s basketball tournament future sites includes Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2025 and ’27 and Chicago’s United Center in ’26. Gainbridge Fieldhouse also will stage the ’25 and ’26 women’s basketball tournaments, while Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena will host for the first time during the 2028 tournament.

“I’ve been really pleased in the interest from cities across, not just from the football side, but men’s and women’s basketball was just really good,” Petitti told The Athletic last week.

It’s a similar move to the…

Oregon women’s volleyball coach Matt Ulmer admits he was nervous but hopeful when the Big Ten announced the upcoming volleyball schedule.

“I had no idea what it was going to look like for the four West schools,” Ulmer said. “But at least at the end of the day, I think they did a really good job of keeping in mind not missing class.”

With Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA entering the Big Ten in August, the 18-team Big Ten stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans and across four time zones. Strategic scheduling and travel were more imperative this year than ever before for the Big Ten staff, especially for Olympic sports like women’s volleyball, of which each school has 20 conference matches.

To ensure the West Coast members avoid hardships beyond on-floor competition, the Big Ten office solicited feedback from its coaches on double-play opponents. In collaboration across the athletic departments, there was a goal to bunch together as many trips as possible and limit missed class time.

2024 #B1G Conference Volleyball Schedule Announced https://t.co/2hgUQ9gdq2

— Big Ten Volleyball (@B1GVolleyball) June 12, 2024

The West Coast schools all face one another home-and-home and split matches with the other 14 schools home or away. Those seven road trips east are…

On Jan. 19, two days after he became the most coveted football player in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and mere hours after he welcomed Ohio State coaches for a recruiting visit, Caleb Downs announced his change-of-address plans. The freshman safety who’d earned second-team All-America honors at Alabama committed to the Buckeyes. Not long after, Downs and his father began relocating to Columbus.

Getting there was simple enough. Getting around was another matter.

Some wheels needed to be put in motion.

“I get a call from someone on the coaching staff and they said, ‘Hey, I’m here with Caleb and his dad now. Are you looking to add somebody else to your team?’” says Rick Ricart, the CEO and owner of Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus. “Would you be willing to do a car deal for him?’”

For decades, these were shifty conversations. Local car dealerships had long been conduits for the whispered inducements coaches or boosters promised talented players. When discovered, scandal erupted. Repercussions were often stark. Then came the seismic summer of 2021, when changes to Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules allowed college athletes to earn money without fear of NCAA sanctions.

Car dealers nationwide quickly exchanged leases and keys for players boasting about their new…

RANCHOS VERDES, Calif. — Palm trees, a Pacific Ocean view and courtyard dinners at the Terranea Resort provided the backdrop this week for one of the Big Ten’s most important group of meetings in the league’s 128-year history.

More than 100 administrators, university leaders, faculty representatives and head coaches from the Big Ten’s 18 members and league office gathered at this plush, picturesque location to discuss an upcoming legal settlement that fundamentally will change college athletics. Those officials were sequestered with security for every function, ranging from outdoor meals to friendly mixers.

The topics weren’t limited to what’s known as the House v. NCAA case, which will cost the NCAA and its member schools $2.7 billion should it be approved. The league added a four-school West Coast wing starting this year, and the spring meetings were as much of a networking event as an opportunity to explore a path forward as a league and an industry.

“I think that we have a chance at this moment right now in college athletics to really reshape the model in the most meaningful way in our lifetimes and maybe the most meaningful way that has ever been,” said Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman, the new Division I Council chair. “How can we build this new…

IOWA CITY, Iowa — With Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten in August, the league has already finalized new scheduling models for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball that prioritize competitive balance, geography and rivalries. The next scheduling phase involves Olympic sports with the same key tenets steering the process as their higher-profile colleagues, but cost and travel have an even greater impact.

On Feb. 19-20, Big Ten officials and school athletics administrators will meet at league headquarters in Rosemont, Ill. to discuss and perhaps finalize scheduling principles for fall Olympic sports. The spring sports likely will settle plans in May. With different priorities guiding each sport, scheduling ideas have ranged from true rotations to regional preference to even some sports on the same campus traveling together to save costs.

“In terms of some of the efficiencies, I don’t think that has been discussed as much because you’re talking about principles right now and not dates,” Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz said. “So if you’re going to figure out if there can be shared travel, you’re going to have to have the actual schedule in front of you to do that.”

GO DEEPER

Big Ten to invite 15 teams to conference hoops…

MINNEAPOLIS — Tony Petitti’s six-month anniversary of his hiring as Big Ten commissioner comes Wednesday, and that half-year has consisted of significant change across the college sports landscape.

From adding Washington and Oregon to finalizing media rights contracts to working with fellow commissioners on a 12-team College Football Playoff, Petitti hardly had time for a honeymoon period after his May 15 start date.

“I feel absolutely privileged to have the job. I really do,” Petitti said “It’s an incredible responsibility. You see it and feel it every time you’re on campus.”

Petitti spoke with The Athletic as part of the Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball media days at the Target Center, which will host the women’s tournament for the second straight year and the men’s tournament for the first time. There were plenty of items to discuss, ranging from the 2024 football schedules to current and future basketball plans to locations for future postseason sites. With that, here are 10 big topics that Petitti addressed on Monday.

Future football schedules

The Big Ten unveiled conference football opponents from 2024 through 2028 last week, and Petitti basked in the way it was arranged. For him, the confluence of implementing an equitable conference-wide…

In the realignment circus that has engulfed collegiate athletics the last two decades, college basketball has become the sideshow act while everything football-related takes place in the main tent.

There are tens of millions reasons why, and they’re all green and fairly obvious. Football’s television ratings and revenues dwarf the indoor sport that doesn’t vault into the public consciousness until mid-February, takes center stage in mid-March and ends with “One Shining Moment” in early April. The three-week NCAA Tournament disperses enough revenue to keep most of its Division I schools afloat, but its potential expansion to 96 or more teams could be its undoing — that’s a topic for another day.

But there’s a way for college basketball to elevate and enhance its profile before the stretch run. It’s amazing it hasn’t happened yet, and let’s use the ever-growing Big Ten as an example.

The Big Ten needs to hold a men’s and women’s basketball spectacular on Super Bowl weekend, complete with a pair of all-star games and 3-point shooting displays. Unveil a dunk contest with celebrity and alumni judges. Hold a game of H-O-R-S-E between current and former Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball stars. A lob pass from Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. to…

The Big Ten is expected to officially approve Oregon and Washington as new members later Friday, league sources tell The Athletic.

The news comes after a frenzied 36 hours. Early Friday morning, momentum for the two schools had slowed considerably, but then the Pac-12 met to discuss its new media rights deal and its future. Afterward, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors met, and the group eventually agreed to offer official invitations to Oregon and Washington — to become the league’s 17th and 18th members. The invites come a little more than a day after The Athletic reported that the Big Ten presidents authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to pursue expansion, and one week after Colorado left the Pac-12 for its former home conference, the Big 12.

The additions come barely 14 months after the Big Ten welcomed Pac-12 flagship programs USC and UCLA as new members beginning Aug. 2, 2024. That movement launched the Pac-12 into chaos in the aftermath, especially in almost-daily showdowns with the Big 12 over expansion.

The Pac-12’s inability to secure a quality linear media rights contract coupled with the Big 12’s media rights agreement, reached last fall, led many Pac-12 programs to consider leaving the historic conference. It came to a head last week when Colorado…

CHICAGO — As he walked off the court Thursday, the fight song blaring triumphantly from the nearby pep band, Micah Shrewsberry stopped to reach over a row of media seats. His wife, Molly, handed over her cellphone. The Penn State coach smiled and yelled into the phone, sharing the moment with his two boys, Braeden and Nicholas, who were back home in State College, awaiting their own high school state playoff game and unable to share in the joy of the Nittany Lions’ 79-76 win over Illinois in the Big Ten tournament.

After passing the phone back to Molly, Shrewsberry tried to exit. But a handful of fans stopped him for autographs, and he hastily scribbled his name on their hats, programs and shirts. Then his athletic director, Pat Kraft, greeted Shrewsberry with a hard high five and bear hug, and the two exited the United Center court arms slung around each other’s shoulders as fans yelled, “We love you, Coach Shrews! Good luck tomorrow.’’

It has been a long time — maybe a forever time — since a Penn State basketball coach felt so much love. Nittany Lions fans have tried in the past to turn over their hearts, only to be rebuked by empty promises not fulfilled with NCAA Tournament results. Bruce Parkhill earned himself a round of love when PSU upset UCLA in the…